In reference to Acts 2:15-21, quoted in a comment prededing this one:
Interesting…… As I read it it says “not drunk”… like you think they are…. Touched by God…. yes. Drunk… No. Isn’t it a shame that something that is so Holy, so Awesome, so Righteous, to ACTUALLY be in the Presence of God and affected by that Presence would be cheapened, demeaned, dishonored, vulgarized by being compared to being under the effect of a drug, which ruins and destroys the lives of so many……..??? It would seem to be like comparing the marriage bed to prostitution, “actually” making love to someone you’ve committed your whole life to in marriage and the famous F-bomb……… a resemblance? Yes. But actually the degrading of what is sacred… an insult to the one you claim to love. Drunk is how those who DIDN’T understand described what they saw. They were mocking and ridiculing the believers and the Source of what they observed. We are to describe ourselves using the language of those who mock us??? Am I questioning the experience? No. I am questioning how it is described by many. Sad, in my opinion.
The above is a comment I made on a post on a social networking site I visit often. On this post a comment was made that is heard frequently in some church gatherings, that the person was “drunk” as a result of a visitation from God. The effect is sometimes referred to as being “drunk in the Spirit”. Not only am I convinced that there is no Biblical basis for the description though Acts 2:15 is often used for justification, I am more importantly concerned that, though I believe unintentionally as with the post I commented on, it demeans a Holy God. Relationship is the essence of the Gospel, but that Relationship is to be highly reverenced, highly esteemed, valued, venerated. Leviticus 11:44 says, “For I am the Lord your God: sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.”( KJV) The NIV and NAS say “consecrate yourselves”. Sanctify and consecrate mean to set aside for a sacred purpose. Holy means the same; set apart, removed from that which defiles or makes unclean. It would seem to me that the comparison of an experience with God to drug effects which defile, demean and destroy is not to make that separation demanded of holiness. My concern is not that those who would use the description “drunk” have any intention to produce the disrespect I describe, rather it is that insufficient consideration has been given to the implications of such descriptions. We are not responsible for the decisions made by others, but we “are” responsible for those we make for ourselves.
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